4th.

We left Cambridge by nine o'clock, and got into Boston in the midst of the bustle.
We went immediately to Bracken's tavern. After dressing, I walk'd out; and met with
a number of my very good friends. At about eleven we went to the old South meeting
house, and heard Mr. Otis deliver an Oration.1 The composition and the delivery were much superior even to my expectations, which
were somewhat sangwine. It was greatly superior in my opinion to that which he delivered
when he took his second degree; the only public performance, that I had heard before
from him. I saw my good friend Bridge for a few minutes only: he told me he expected
to be at Newbury-Port in about three weeks from this. I likewise met with Townsend
as I was going out of the Church; and we went together to the old brick; to hear General
Hull's Oration to the Cincinnati;2 it appeared to me rather indifferent; and the effect upon me was the greater from
the in• { 425 } voluntary comparison with that which I had just heard. However I found afterwards
there were many persons who thought or pretended to think this Oration better both
in matter and manner than the other: and they have certainly a right to enjoy their
opinions: I dined at Deacon Storer's. Parson Wibird was there and some other company.
In the afternoon I walk'd up on the common, to see the military parade, which was
not however so spirited as at the last anniversary: but in the middle of the afternoon,
the news arrived that Virginia had acceded to the federal Constitution, and immediately
the bells were set to ringing, and the guns to firing again, without any mercy, and
continued all the remainder of the afternoon. In the evening a number of young fellows
paraded round the streets with candles lighted in their hands, and a drum before them,
not much to their own credit or to the honour of the day; but they did no damage.
I spent part of the evening with several of my classmates; but not finding Bridge,
I returned early, and took my lodging at Brackett's.

2. William Hull, An Oration Delivered to the Society of the Cincinnati . . . July 4, 1788, Boston, 1788.

Docno: ADMS-03-02-02-0003-0007-0005

Author: Adams, John Quincy

Date: 1788-07-05

5th.

We called this morning at Dr. Welch's, and at Mr. Guild's; but left town at about
ten o'clock: It was almost one when we got to Braintree. I amused myself as I could
in the afternoon: Mrs. Warren,1 with her son Harry stop'd here this night on their way to Plymouth; to which place
General Warren has removed back, after living about eight years at Milton. He was
formerly a very popular man, but of late years he has thought himself neglected by
the People; his mind has been soured, and he became discontented, and querulous: he
has been charged with using his influence in favour of Tender acts and paper money;
and it has even been very confidently asserted, that he secretly favoured the insurrections
and rebellion of the winter before last. Whether his conduct has been misrepresented
or not, is a point that must for the present remain undetermined. But he has certainly
given some reason for suspicion by his imprudence; and when in a time of rebellion
a man openly censures the conduct in general, and almost every individual act of an
administration, an impar• { 426 } tial public will always judge, that such a man cannot be greatly opposed to a party
who are attacking the same measures.

Mrs. Warren however positively declared there was no truth in those allegations, and
was very confident, that they were nothing more than the suggestions of the general's
enemies, whose malignity, was unaccountable, but whose utmost spite and envy could
not disturb his happiness

“For all the distant din this world can keep

Rolls o'er his grotto and but sooths his sleep.”

1. Mercy Otis Warren, historian and dramatist, wife of James Warren. The Adamses and
Warrens had maintained a close friendship for many years.